moulin rouge lampshade.

i have had my nose consistently buried in several copies of diy magazine during my attempts to redecorate our townhouse on the cheap. my thought was that if i could re-do lots of things we already have, we'd get a brand-new look without the brand-new price tag! one idea i came across that i loved was a ribbon-wrapped lampshade. this project was fun, easy, and cost me all of $9 on three rolls of sheer ribbon!

before> plain jane fabric lampshade
after> pretty orange ribbon wrapped (kind-of looking like pleated fabric?) lampshade!
when i stood back to admire my finished project, turning on the lamp, i discovered that the ribbon gives the lamp a sort-of funky moulin rouge-ish glow... a totally unexpected effect! i might normally have thought it cheesy, but i'm guess i'm in just enough of a let's-break-out-of-the-ordinary-expected mood that it works. This, too, is a super quick, easy, and cheap project! you stick the end of the ribbon into the inside of the shade with double-sided tape, and wrap wrap wrap wrap for about 45 minutes while watching re-runs of the office (or maybe that's just me!). anytime your ribbon runs out (mine took about 2 and a half normal-sized rolls) just stick the new end on top of the old end with more tape (making sure to catch the actual shade in there too) and keep wrapping!

sidenote: i'm thinking about touching up the inside with fabric glue where the tape keeps coming unstuck in a place or two!

i had, at first, considered covering just the edges of the outside of the shade with some ribbon, like this other diy tutorial, but i'm really happy with my little orange moulin rouge lampshade.

glass etching!

ever since i read about glass etching in the ginormous martha book, i knew it was a project i would try. in fact, i went straight for her etched storage jars idea, desperate to consolidate all of the half-empty rubber-band-topped plastic bags, mismatched tupperware containers, and paper bags of flour and sugar in my cabinet. so i found the perfect jars at target, dutifully used a michael's coupon for the slightly pricey etching cream, found a fantastic tutorial (in addition to the one in the martha book), and then let all of the materials sit on the kitchen counter.

for two months.

(maybe even three?)

luckily for me, my sweet sister in law attends a monthly craft group (led by a really nice girl we knew in high school!) who was doing an etching project this month, and came home from it with lots of enthusiasm and motivation to share with me! so i packed up K and took her over to play with her cousins while us big girls tested out the etching and had a blast! after a bit of trial and error and tweaking, we were quickly looking for how many other things in the kitchen could be etched? we settled on my sis's dish soap dispenser, which turned out so cute with a little frosty monogram! here is my quickie tutorial of how my jars turned out:

1. pick out what glass item you'd like to etch. (naked jars floating in the craft doldrums at my house):
cute jars waiting to fulfill their etched destiny at my sister in law's house!
2. arrange your stickers to spell out the labeling on your jars, plus any decorative items (like the stripe underneath each word). i used clear packing tape to mark off a large square around the word, but it's practically invisible against the clear glass. i did flour and sugar jars, using not-so-cute scrapbooking alphabet stickers that i had on hand and knew i would most likely never use in a scrapbook! (thus the lovely orange letter/red bandana stripe combo!)
smooth the stickers and the tape down tight so that there are no air bubbles. it also helps to make sure your jar/glass surface is squeaky clean before you start!
3. spread a nice thick layer of etching cream over the area you want to be etched, like you would frosting on a cake. be careful not to spread out over the edge of the tape. i think next time i'll use masking tape so i can see my boundaries more clearly!
4. let the cream sit for awhile. the jar says just a couple of minutes, but i did more like 20 to make sure the etching really showed up. i think next time i'll leave it on even longer. scrape the excess cream back into the container- it can be reused! then gently rinse off the rest (being careful not to wash your stickers off in case you want to etch it more! the etching won't show up well when it's wet, so make sure you pat it dry with a paper towel before deciding if you want it more deeply etched. (if you are not satisfied, spread the cream again and let it sit for 6-10 more minutes, rinsing and checking again until you are happy with it!)
5. enjoy your etched loveliness! (maniacally search house for glass items to etch... i am a little crazy for monogramming everything in my house, so this is a little dangerous for me!)

i will most definitely be using this idea for lots more projects! i'm definitely going to make my own little monogrammed dish soap dispenser, maybe even a huge cookie jar (that says got milk?), and i think more than a few folks may be receiving monogrammed glasses for christmas!

oh, and maybe some ornaments, too.

words to live by.

we have some good friends from our old church that are getting ready to leave this week for a missions trip to tokyo, japan. i think this is the first missions trip they've been on, and their first trip out of the country! M and i are so excited for them, and when they requested some little notes of encouragement to take on the trip with them, M suggested bible verses on index cards. i, of corse, who can leave no surface un-decorated, refined that suggestion to a little "tag book," modeled after one that a good friend sent to me right after K was born. she sent me a tag on a bookbindimg ring, and then sent another tag with an encouraging little saying about motherhood several times a week. it was so great to add each little tag to the ring and watch it fill up with encouragement!

so this is what we came up with for our friends, and popped it in the mail yesterday. i love doing stuff like this! it has 10 pages, one for each day of the trip.
the cover makes me laugh- i'm so into orange and brown right now & the chevron-like stripe makes me think of 70's running shorts.
each page has a verse and a little note why we picked the verse. i got a little marker-happy, and it was good fun.
one of my favorites! such a good verse to remember thoughout the day- words to live by.

coasters.

anytime i get the wild thought that i want to spruce up my living room, i usually start with coasters. the living room is literally where we do the majority of our living... naps on the couch, movies at night, dinner at the coffee table, k dumping out her toy basket and playing, me writing on my laptop... the list goes on & on! for some reason, with this last move to our new townhouse, the redecorating bug bit me really badly, and i literally wanted to start over. so, basically, within the confines of our budget, i did! and of course, i started with my little obsession with coasters.
i usually do little quilted ones, but for these, i tried out a reverse applique idea that i think turned out really cute! especially paired with the dotted fabric. i absolutely LOVE that amy butler dotted fabric. i'm doing the room in a mix of mostly tan and orange, but with a little dark brown and just a touch of green for fun (of course, the ones with green are not pictured yet because they are still sitting on my sewing machine, not quite finished). now they have a place of honor on our coffee table in the little baskets that house our remote controls and the random pens and cluttery-stuff that collects in the living room.
the more logical thing would be throw pillows, but i have a strange intimidation of them. if i just sat down and did it, i'd probably find that they were the easiest thing in the world, and why didn't i do it sooner? aren't they kind-of like giant coasters with stuffing? but now the loveliness of the throw pillow offerings on etsy are wooing me, despite the fact that it would be much cheaper to make them myself, and i have an obscene amount of fabric just waiting to be used! maybe i will get brave this week & just go for it!

paper lanterns.

i'm not even sure it's safe to tell you how many times i've almost ordered some paper lanterns online. i'm glad i didn't, because a few weeks back i found these at michael's for $1 apiece! (i think the big one was $2.50. but still).
with no shipping. they're doing a great little one-dollar-spot like target, which is genius of them. i used some ribbon to hang them at different heights and thumbtacked it into the ceiling, et voila! exactly the look i wanted on the super cheap, which is even better.
also, when you rock in the rocking chair, it creates a slight breeze that fans the lanterns back and forth ever so gently. love it! i'm trying to decide if i want to get a lamp kit to put in the big white one to make it an actual lantern instead of just decorative, also available on the cheap from pier one! (a fun little side note, recovering the cushions of that glider rocker has been on my to-do list since before K was born. i had the fabric out and ready to work on it the day my water broke, and then, well, life and a new baby happened!)

i have always loved these paper lanterns, and have to physically resist putting some in every room of our house. they are a great, cheap, and easy way to decorate, especially for parties! i bought some extra little pink ones for K's upcoming first birthday (wowza, already?), some yellow and white ones for a friend's baby shower that i am helping decorate, and some of the little green ones to hang around the edge of my booth for a little extra pizazz at craft shows!

welcome!

thanks for joining me from ellebee studio! i'm so excited to finally have this new blog up and running. as i said before, i'll always love ellebee studio, but i'm looking at this name change as a chance to hopefully revamp, re-do, recreate, and revive. a new start, in a way!

i have lots of exciting plans for leaf & letter. i've started twittering (tweeting? twittereeting?) and will have an all-new etsy shop up and running soon. for now, the old shop, ellebee studio, will all be clearanced to some get-it-for-a-steal prices.

for now, i'm hard at work redecorating our townhome, and trying to finish lots of home-y projects. thanks for your patience with me as i transition to the new!

teeny tiny little jars- part 2

is it bad that my favorite part of having a 7 month old 8 month old (geez, they grow fast!) is all the teeny tiny little jars all over the house? truly, i have a kitchen drawer full of them as a result of saving every single one she's ever eaten out of. seriously. i've done a fairly good job of washing them out, de-labeling them, and setting them aside for craft-preparedness as we get done emptying them of their pureed contents. i gathered some up the other day and set them on the porch to dry, delighting in the sweet possibility of little empty jars.

i found a pretty little tray in my craft room, set them up in it, and started filling them will all the little craft-room flotsam and jetsam that tends to get tucked in a drawer or a ziplock baggie somewhere and lost or forgotten. even after tucking every little something i could find into them, i still have a few empty ones- prime real estate for more crafty organizational fun! my favorite is that i finally have a place for the little parts and pieces of a couple different sizes of fabric-covered button sets.

i love it when some of my favorite crafting elements collide- simple, repurposed, organizational, and cute! some of the things that finally have a home are: pushpins, blank magnets, hairclips, brads, buttons, beads, mini keyrings, and small, rolled-up tape measures!